Life Takes Amazing Turn

I really don't know when I actually took the turn in the road. It seems somewhat foggy to me. Was I even looking to take a turn? Or did I just see something that interested me and I made the turn without thinking. I guess it does not matter much about the whens or even whys. The important aspect of it all is that I TOOK the turn and it has changed my life.

I have mentioned a few times that I am a creative sort. Life does not appeal to me unless I am creating something and it seems in hindsight that what I created in the past few years was a lot of fear. There was reason for this too. After 9/11 life seemed more fearful to me. Fear was on the news each night and with a son serving in the military it seemed closer than ever before. I turned my fear into a creative outlet called " I Surrender This", which on top being something I "created", it also helped me with my fear. Win-win. I still feel overjoyed and thankful for the opportunity to help others manage fear in their lives. I love talking about "letting go", and "living in the moment". I love the feeling of "not feeling" that I need to accomplish anything other than to just "be who I am". It is freeing and peaceful and true for me.

This leads me to the reason for this post. The new creative outlet I have found in all things vintage. Whether it be sewing, collecting sewing patterns, knitting or my newest passion for creating a mid-century home. That's right, a home. Not a house with the purpose to resell it, but a home. Our home. My home. A home.

Last night while cruising the internet looking for kitchen laminate (no granite for me) for a 1946 home, I found Retro Renovation on facebook.  Which then led me to Pam's website www.RetroRenovation.com. I almost fell off my chair with excitement. There it was all on one page. This is what I wrote to Pam in an email:

I've just got to tell you that I am OVER the TOP with your website. OMG...it is all I have been looking for. I could spend days here, and wish a gigantic snow storm with internet intact would befall us so I could cuddle in bed with my laptop and go through EVERY page of this and all the links. LOVE it. I will do a mention on my "little" blog in the next few days. We have a cute little pantry that I want to keep totally retro. Been looking for shelf liner and now I know where to get it. Thanks for the most amazing retro website EVER.
Sassy Lassie

Now today she posts this. As much as I love this laminate, hubby is really dead-set against it. I read that it is eco-friendly. That helped. I read that it stands the test of time. Helped. I read that it is coming back in vogue. Are you kidding he said? Well maybe stretching the truth a bit I said coyly.

This is a picture of our kitchen on the day we purchased the house-minus the clock on the wall. The family decided they wanted it. It does not get any simpler than this. We have moved the table to the center of the room and added a lovely vintage kitchen tablecloth. That is it for the moment.

  I spent the first day doing a little clean-up in the kitchen. This unit is like new. No scratches or dents. Mr. Rooney had put heavy duty linoleum over each shelf and it preserved it beautifully.

 

 The sun streaming in!

 The gas stove is a Montgomery Ward "Magic Menu". I would like to replace it with something older. As I would the fridge. But a small battle goes on with hubby over efficiency with these old appliances. Ugh!

This is the stove I would like to replace it with. It about takes my breath away with its beauty.

It may well be out of my price range though.

This may be more practical. These are both old stoves that have been refurbished by http://www.antiquegasstoves.com

Some may look at these and say, "ewwww. I want a nice stainless Viking with all the newest gadgits. But let me tell you I have always had Champagne taste and with these stoves I continue. These start at well over $3000.00 and go up to $15,000. I bet the first one I chose would go for about $10,000 if not more.  

Yup Champagne taste with a Boone's Farm budget. That's me.

The Pantry

These were all left in the house.

So my amazing turn has taken me all over the decades of the 1940's and 1950's and it has made me happier than ever. I love the simple task of making something out of nothing and I am so happy to be making this home (Mr. Rooney's) into our home.

Made in USA

Going through our new home and its contents there is one thing that keep standing out. No matter what it is, it was Made in USA and proudly states it somewhere.

Today we were removing furniture from the dining room and behind the wall was a grimy card table. Well it was grimy from only one view. The back was pristine and had a sticker marked "Samsonite -Made in the USA $8.50". I cleaned the darling up and it is like brand new. Brand spanking new.

Plates, cups, cookware....all of them Made in the USA. Furniture, all of it Made in the USA. Lighting, appliances, and even all the wallpaper says, "Made in the USA".

This is the big difference between then and now. Nothing seems to be made in the USA anymore. When I created the product "I Surrender This", I had it 100% Made in the USA. It cost oodles more than it would have if I had gone to China, but I was unmoving about it. I went to a trade show with the product, and all the buyers could say was that it was too expensive and I should have gone to China if I wanted it to sell. Ugh.

I stand by the idea of giving jobs to Americans and keeping our products made in the USA. Most of the contents of the house are old, 30-100 years old, and they all work just fine. We may update for aesthetic reasons, but not because it is junk or does not work.

I will get off my soapbox for today. How do you all feel about the idea of making things again in the USA and more importantly purchasing items made in the USA at possibly a higher price?

I guess "the buyers" were right, the "I Surrender This" kit was too expensive for the masses and now I have over 750 of them that need to go.

When I created the I Surrender This kit, I wanted it to be as environmental as my pocketbook could manage. It is made 100% within the USA...using USA craftsmen and companies.

If any of my readers would like one of these kits for a reasonable $15 plus shipping, send me off an email.
lsullivan@isurrenderthis.com

It is a great tool for moving thought patterns away from fear, doubt or worry and into joy. It has worked for me in more ways than I could tell you. AND it is:

 

100% organic cotton canvas for the flag.

Sustainable wood for the flagpole

Solid Brass for the flagpole finial.

The box (packaging) is cardboard...and it is a box that you can keep and use...rather than the typical throw away packaging of most products.

The book is written on recycled paper.

And last but NOT least, the 50 page writing tablet uses the Monandock Astrolite PC 100.

I am proud to be a steward for our Earth.

Thursday, June 10, 2004
News - Graphic Arts Papers - Technical Papers - Non-Wovens - Monadnock in the News - Press Releases - Packaging

BENNINGTON, NEW HAMPSHIRE (March 5, 2004) - Monadnock Paper Mills, Inc. announced today that it has been awarded the Forest Stewardship Council's (FSC®) Chain-of-Custody Certification for it's 100% post-consumer fiber, fine printing paper - Astrolite PC 100®. The SmartWood Program of the Rainforest Alliance®, a third-party certifier endorsed by the FSC, conducted the testing for Monadnock's Chain-of-Custody Certification.

Monadnock's Astrolite PC 100 will now be the first commercially branded recycled grade of paper sold in the United States to bear the FSC "checkmark and tree" logo, assuring environmentally conscious paper and print buyers that Monadnock Paper Mills manufactures this product in compliance with FSC standards. This goal is achieved by tracking post-consumer fiber from its point of recovery through every step of the repulping and paper manufacturing process. Only when this chain-of-custody tracking has been independently verified is the product eligible to carry the FSC logo - a globally accepted sign of environmental sustainability.

Sassy New Look

I hope you like the new look. It is not very classically retro, but it feels vintage to me. It reminds me of wallpaper you might have found in a living or bedroom years ago. The colors make me happy.

It's funny, I chose these colors, and then realized they were almost the exact colors of my "I Surrender This" kit. I guess my heart sings with these colors.

 

I SURRENDER THIS

On another note:
My sister Patti is a professional medium and started a blog yesterday called "Patti with an Eye". When people ask her how to spell her name she says, "Patti with an "i, and the title is just a play on words for this. Her business is called "Within Reach".

I have not had a chance to sew at all this week as things have pulled me in different directions each day. Whew!!! I am looking forward to some down time where I can sew.

See you all tomorrow.

I Have an Angel by my Side

This morning, as every morning, I was reading my e-mail and my kitty Angel came up to be with me. She is much like a dog and follows me from room to room. I usually don't mind but this morning I was planning on starting to sew McCalls 5281 and she was in the way. It is hair shedding time of year for her and her hair gets EVERYWHERE! That and the constant walking back and forth in front of the computer can get annoying.

While waiting for some toast to cook I was looking out my kitchen window and noticed a bug stuck in a spider's web. I searched the window for the spider and found none and felt like the web might be just an old one and this bug had happened upon it. I could not stand to watch it trying to wiggle its way out of the web, and as we all know, its efforts would be in vain. So I saved the darn thing and put it outside. Fly away little bug...have a good life. But then I noticed the same bug on the tomato while trying to shew Angel out of my way.

Maybe it is a sewing angel disguised as a bug. I have lots of angels in my life. Most of them being the celestial kind. In another corner of my life I work with people to guide them to know the angels that walk the path with them. I have also been blessed with the knowledge that they are always with me. Here is a story from another of my blogs about how an angel gave me peace on the morning after my 23 year old son had a heart attack. This blog and website I Surrender This were created as a means to cope when my son was deployed in 2003/2004 and 2005.

By the time I finished moving the bug to a new spot, Angel had made herself comfortable on top of the fabric that was waiting to be transformed into a dress. Sorry Angel but that is not going to work. I went downstairs and picked up her bed and brought it to the sewing room hoping she would settle into it.

Not looking too happy here, so I moved her to the floor.

  "The floor? Really?"

"Let me think about it!"

"Well maybe."

She finally settled in for about five minutes and then decided to leave and take a nap in the sun in the hallway. Sheesh!!! 

Here is a tidbit of what I accomplished sewing. This is the bodice of a reversible dress with rick rack trim everywhere.  The turquoise and white striped fabric is seersucker.